I can't make you love me
by candidata
Summary: Gil Grissom let people in Jackpot think it was the wife calling. Now back at the lab he has to face his “wife”.


**I can't make you love me 1/1**

Disclaimer: Don't own them just borrowing. Also don't own Bonnie Raitt's: 'I Can't Make You Love Me.

Rating: CSI 2

Spoilers: Jackpot S4E6 – the one with all the wife-comments!

Author's Notes: I am doing this from a request by cathwillows. Her videos are amazing!

Summary: Gil Grissom told people in Jackpot it was the wife calling. Now back at the lab he has to face his "wife".

**I can't make you love me**

She opened the door to his dark office and stepped into it. She closed the door behind her and tiptoed over to his chair. She sat down and breathed in the scent of him that came from the leather chair and the shirt that hung loosely over the back of the chair. She flipped on the small radio and sat back in the dark while the song softly made it's way into her head and her heart.

"Turn down the lights

Turn down the bed

Turn down these voices inside my head

Lay down with me, tell me no lies

Just hold me close, don't patronize

Don't patronize me.

Cause I can't make you love me if you don't

You can't make your heart feel something it won't

Here in the dark, in these final hours

I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power

But you won't, no you won't

Cause I can't make you love me if you don't.

I'll close my eyes, then I won't see

The love you don't feel when you're holdin me

Mornin will come and I'll do what's right

Just give me till then to give up this fight

And I will give up this fight.

Cause I can't make you love me if you don't

You can't make your heart feel something it won't

Here in the dark, in these final hours

I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power

But you won't, no you won't

Cause I can't make you love me if you don't."

She always got like this. Restless when they were apart for too long. She sighed and leaned back into his chair. It was getting late and she had decided to wait it out in his office until he came back. The others had gone home hours ago. She was here. Waiting. Hoping he would walk in the door as soon as possible.

"This is crazy" she exclaimed out loud and shook her head. It wasn't as if they were together, like she was waiting for a lover to come home and take her to bed, but the longing resembled that feeling perfectly. They had talked on the phone a couple of times and even though it had just been about the case she had sensed something else. After one of their conversations had ended and she hung up it hit her, he called her "dear" when he answered the phone. A slight line formed in her forehead as she contemplated what he could have meant by that statement. Maybe the endearment just slipped out?

She sat there waiting and felt her eyelids slowly closing. Soon she was fast asleep. The sound of the phone woke her. She sat up almost falling out of the chair not knowing where she was. After a couple of seconds she remembered, she was waiting. Still waiting.

She reached over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Catherine said.

"Yes, is this Gil eh... I mean Dr. Grissom's office?" a young woman's voice asked.

"Yes it is, What can I do for you?"

"I'm Jessie calling from the sheriff's office here in Jackpot, Dr. Grissom forgot one of the case files here, and we just wanted him to know we'll be sending it to him with a messenger sometime tomorrow if that is ok?"

"Sure, I'll let him know," Catherine answered sensing the young woman wasn't quite ready to hang up.

"Eh..."

"Yes, was there anything else?" Catherine felt herself tense up a bit, was this woman calling Grissom's office or Gil?

"Can you give him a message without letting his wife know?"

Catherine was confused. His wife?

"Excuse me, his wife?"

"Yes, just don't let her know about it, it's suppose to be a secret"

"Hmmmmm...I see, don't worry I won't tell her," Catherine said a knot of excitement and confusion forming in her stomach.

"Just let him know Mr. Gardener have been trying to reach him and he says the ring will be ready by the end of this week," Jessie told her. Catherine felt herself take a deep breath. Why was Gil ring shopping and for whom? It didn't make any sense; she had to get more info.

"What did Dr. Grissom tell you guys about his wife?" she asked hoping the young woman wouldn't get suspicious.

" Well to be honest I heard about it through the village grapevine. Dr. Grissom never really told anyone about her, just something about trying not to keep secrets from her and the sheriff says he spoke to her several times," Jessie told her.

Catherine sat back in the chair. Realization hitting her. It was her Jessie was talking about. The confusion was total.

Why would Gil let anyone think he was married and let alone to her? And what about the ring? She felt her heart sink, Gil was seeing someone and it was getting serious.

"Eh... miss?" Jessie's voice brought her back.

"Willows, yes I'm still here, I'll let him know, thanks for calling" Catherine hung up before Jessie could answer.

Only seconds later the door opened and Gil entered the office. A smile spread on his tired face when he saw her.

"Catherine..." she cut him off.

"Who is she?" her voice louder than she intended.

"What?"

"I just talked to Jessie. I have a message from Mr. Gardener" she watched at Gil visibly paled.

"Also Jessie didn't want me to tell your wife about the ring," she spat at him walked up to him tears threatening to fall. She walked past him and yanked the door open.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

"Home Gil. Away from you, thanks for humiliating me like that?"

He quickly went to her and pulled her back into the office, the cold stare in his eyes letting him know, the explanation better be good.

"I'm sorry Catherine, but I never meant to hurt you... I... I..." he didn't know how to say it.

"So you don't think I felt like the biggest fool when I got that call?" she spat at him, he tried to calm her down by stroking her arms with his hands but she pulled away.

"Don't distract me like that. You let them believe I was your wife while you went ring hunting for your girlfriend. God, I've never been so stupid. Why would you do that to me?" tears were flowing freely from her eyes.

Gil decided it was time to step in, he couldn't stand to see her cry.

"Cath please let me explain. Give me 10 minutes and if you don't accept my apology and explanation by then, then I'll never bother you again?" he watched her eye him with suspicion but she nodded her head slightly and sat down on his couch.

"I don't have a girlfriend," he told her and watched her roll her eyes.

"Catherine, if you won't even give me a chance to explain..." she threw her hands into the air and signaled for him to go on.

"There is not anyone else. I let them believe you were my wife because...because I wish it was the truth..." he watched her head snap around and her eyes locked with his as he continued.

"Catherine it had always been you. I just never had the courage to tell you but in Jackpot this man, Mr. Gardener a jeweler came up to me and asked me if I didn't want to bring home my wife a token of affection right in front of the sheriff, and since I'd already played the part of the husband, who seriously owed his wife after you called me, I couldn't deny it," Gil said as he began to get up but he was pulled back and her lips landed on his.

For a while they kissed, their hands exploring and the kiss growing deeper before Catherine drew back.

"I'm sorry. I was jealous I guess. I just ... " she looked right into his eyes when she said it:

"I guess I wanted it to be true as well, I wanted to be your wife,"

A big smile spread on Gil's lips and he began to laugh. Catherine looked at him not understanding what was so funny.

"Catherine, I'm so glad to hear you say that, because I actually got Mr. Gardener's message and I went back for the ring, that's why I came back to late,"

He reached into his inner pocket and drew out a small velvety black box. Catherine's eyes widened.

"Gil, what are you doing, when I said I wanted to... well, I didn't mean..." she began babbling.

"Catherine would you please shut up so I can propose to you?" he told her and silenced her with a deep kiss.

He pulled back, got down on one knee and opened the small box. Inside was the most stunning diamond engagement ring Catherine had ever seen.

"Gil," her voice refused to say anything.

"Catherine I've not only loved you for years, I've been in love with you since I saw you the first time. You're the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I fall asleep, I want you there next to me, I want Lindsey down the hall from us and if you want this as much as me a baby in the future. I love you Catherine, will you marry me?"

She slid down the couch and into his arms, her lips meeting his in a frenzied kiss.

When she drew back tears ran down her cheeks, she saw his eyes go from happy to insecure in a millisecond. She immediately remembered she never gave him an actual answer.

"Yes, Gil, yes I want to be your wife, I want to wake up next to you for the rest of my life and I'm sure Lindsey will be over the moon when we tell her. About the baby thing, there's nothing I'd rather do than make a baby with you, so what do you say? Do you want to get a jump start on that part of the plan?" she told him in a teasing voice as he slipped the ring onto her finger.

http://www.knoxjewelers.biz/images/9371image.jpg


End file.
